Amazon launches new solar power and recycling programs

Online giant making moves to reduce its carbon footprint.

Amazon has announced two major new initiatives that it hopes will move it even closer to becoming a company with an almost invisible carbon footprint.

First up is a $10 million investment in the Closed Loop Fund, and the second is the purchase of a bunch of solar panels.

The Closed Loop Fund is a “social impact investment fund that provides cities access to the capital required to build comprehensive recycling programs.” Its goal is to invest $100 million by 2020 to increase recycling rates in communities across America and build circular supply chains.

Amazon claims that almost half of all Americans do not have access to curbside recycling pickup. That means tons and tons of cardboards and other reusable materials get thrown in the trash.

“This investment will help build the local capabilities needed to make it easier for our customers and their communities to recycle and to increase the amount of material recycled across the country,” Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of Worldwide Operations, said in a statement.

“We are investing in Closed Loop Fund’s work because we think everyone should have access to easy, convenient curbside recycling. The more we are all able to recycle, the more we can reduce our collective energy, carbon, and water footprint.”

The second move is installing 20 megawatts worth of solar panels. It will take 18 months to install the system, and Amazon hopes this will reduce its carbon footprint by 6,000 metric tons of CO2 per year.